Drop Off for Re-Delivery at Your BMW Dealer

Basic Introduction to Drop-off and the Redelivery Process

We are in the process of reoganizing this entire section to (hopefully) make it both more readable and more useful. Use the outline above to see where the various sections are now located.

To quote from Jonathan Spira's article on the Port of Bremerhaven and BLG Logistics, the company that is responsible for shipping virtually all BMWs to the U.S., drop-off is the "inevitable epilogue of every European Delivery trip..." This section will provide guidance in preparing for drop-off, getting to and from the drop-off location, and the steps that follow until you are reunited with your new car.

Drop Off Details

The material in this section provides an overview of the drop-off process. Please look at the detailed information at the official BMW European Delivery "Come Home" web page. It has information on special considerations and limitations, including the following:
"If you requested 3, 4 or 5 months of insurance because you are planning to keep your vehicle for that extended time in Europe, you are required to drop off your vehicle in Germany at any of the German drop off locations. New European Customs regulations mandate that the exportation process must start in the country of vehicle delivery, in your case Germany."

When you are done driving your car around Europe, BMW offers 11 different drop-off locations in 6 different countries including Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland. (England and Spain are no longer drop-off options as of August 2009). You will be dropping your car off with the designated shipping company, BLG Logistics, for transport to the United States. All costs involved with the transport including customs clearance and duty and marine insurance are included in the purchase price of all BMWs sold under the European Delivery Program. NOTE EXCEPTION: There is a charge for dropping off in Italy. You should review the official BMW USA information on the web.

Except for Munich, all drop off locations require 4 days advance notice to schedule a drop off appointment by either by phone or email. All drop off locations are open Monday to Friday only, except for Munich which has limited Saturday hours. All locations are closed on Sundays, German holidays and scheduled holidays.

All cars are shipping from Antwerp, Belgium or Bremerhaven, Germany. It will take approximately 6-8 weeks to the East coast and 8-10 weeks to the West Coast from drop off date for a car to arrive at your BMW center for final delivery. Be advised that if you drop off your car at any other location than Germany that arrival time will be longer. From BMWUSA.com

The hierarchy for drop-off/redelivery speed is the following:

Bremerhaven

München

Other German locations

Locations outside of Germany

Be sure to remove all personal objects and belongings from the car including the first aid kit and hazard warning triangle, as these items cannot be legally imported with the car. As of late 2011 people have reported the warning triangle mounting brackets have been removed from their car at the VDC while others have reported that they were not removed. If you want to ensure that your brackets make it home you can remove the brackets yourself and pack them in your luggage before drop-off. Depending on the model and body style, some brackets snap in, some are secured with a Philips head screw, and other brackets are secured with either a T10 or T20 screw which requires a Torx screwdriver.

Both license plates must remain on the car. Prior to July 2009, BMW encouraged owners to take the front plate as a souvenir. Due to new German regulations about licensing and insurance, both plates must stay on the car until the car has been exported. This is the case regardless of the country in which you drop the car off.

Drop Off Locations

Germany

Munich

Information for drop-offs in the Munich area on or after December 1, 2010

Office hours:
Monday-Friday between 8:30am and 4:00pm
Saturday between 10:00am and 2:00pm

Closed on Sundays and all legal German holidays.

Please bring all documents provided to you by BMW and your passport.
The drop off procedure will take about 30 minutes.

Contact information as of Jan. 2012 (thanks to gmblack3):

Email: drop-off-munich@loginout.de
Phone number from within Germany:
089-416-114-600

If you need to make an off-hours drop-off in Munich, read the information at John Lance's EDwintertires web site. His staff may be able to help you.

Rolf Raffelsieper's VIP Pickup Service

You can have Rolf Raffelsieper's VIP Pickup Service meet you at the Log In Out office and take you either back to your hotel or to another Munich-area destination. His price is still a bargain compared to the taxis. There is a long thread full of information and experiences.

Public transit info

If you wish to take public transit, there is an S-Bahn stop at the airport opposite the terminals. TICKETS: You need a three zone ticket to get from the airport (6,90 Euros adult or 9,00 Euros for up to 5 people -- a Partner-Tageskarte ticket) back to downtown Munich. (2011 prices) For Marienplatz take either an S-1 or an S-8 train, whichever is departing first.

If you run into any problems, call Kathrin Behnke, Customer Service Export at BLG Logistics, at +49 471 48295 671. Her email is k.behnke@blg.de. She handles almost all of the BMW Euro Delivery paperwork for BLG at Bremerhaven and has been a huge help to several 'Festers.
If you think that you are lost, just call the numbers listed above and ask for specific directions. Note: In Germany, the phone number would be 0471-48295 and either 671 or 676.
The staff is very friendly. They are located on the second (really the third) floor. The process should take about an hour, depending upon the number of clients who are there. The earlier that you get there, the better. They can arrange for a taxi to the Bremerhaven Hauptbahnhof (about 20Euros).

Frankfurt

For some, the navigation system does a fine job of getting you to the drop-off address. However, on a recent trip to the drop off location (Oct, 2010) from Wiesbaden, the navigation unexpectedly provided directions onto a remote dirt road that lead into a restricted construction site for the expansion of the US airbase near the Frankfurt airport. This resulted in a 20 minute detour to the appropriate destination. So, be mindful of which direction you are coming from when driving to the Frankfurt drop off point and look closely at the map on the nav screen and focus on taking a route that does not include traveling on very small roads. Play it safe and leave a little extra time to find the drop off location.

Look for the BLG Logistics sign on the building. You will probably see several new cars in the parking lot with telltale ED license plates. Park your car inside the fence and walk upstairs through the spiral staircase in the middle of the building and down the hall to the right. You may leave your belongings in the car until your cab arrives and transfer your bags into the cab at that time.

A taxi from BLG to the local bahnhof on Farmstraße is €5, and from there it's €2,20 to the airport on the 5514 bus (this bus departs every 30-60 minutes). The 5514 terminates at FRA Terminal 1. If you are staying longer in Frankfurt, you can take the S7 train from the local bahnhof to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (select destination 0050 on the ticket machine). A taxi from BLG to the Frankfurt airport runs around 17 Euros and takes about 10-15 minutes. The folks at BLG are happy to call a cab for you and the cab will arrive by the time your paperwork has been finalized.

Typically the trucks that transport the cars to Bremerhaven stop by S.C.S. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you drop your car off on Friday, it will sit in Sindelfingen for about half a week waiting for the next truck.

Taxi ride to the Boeblingen Bahnhof takes less than 10 minutes and costs around 8 euros. From there you can catch the S-Bahn (S1) to Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof or Stuttgart Flughafen (transfer to S2 or S3 @ Rohr).

Austria

Use of an Autobahn or select Schnellstrasse segments in Austria requires payment of a road tax through purchase of a vignette, which are available at gas stations near border crossings and at ADAC offices in Germany, and within Austria at ÖAMTC or ARBÖ offices and at many gas stations located near entrances to the toll roadways. Specific vendor locations can be found on the web.

Austria requires a security vest for each driver, which can be purchased where vignettes are sold.

Vienna

The Nav system will send you to the right of the correct building (true as of June 2008); when you are about 1000 feet from the end of your journey you want to go thru the gateway with the guard and gate (into the Free Trade Zone - "Zollfreie Zone") not to the right.

(2009) Public Transport: The new 80b bus stops near the entrance to the Free Trade Zone about every half hour between 5:47am and 8:17pm. Additional information is available on the web.

If you are going to the airport you can take a taxi to the railway station at Wien Mitte (about 15-20 Euro), where you can take the City Airport train for 9 Euro to the airport. The S7 line from the station also runs to the airport from that station.

(2009) To save a few Euros (and likely some time) when taking a taxi non-stop to the airport, ask your driver to take the "back way" through Mannswörth instead of using the Autobahn - it's only 14km / 20 minutes and should be 30-35 Euros that way. Note that taxi fares from Vienna to VIE can vary pretty dramatically - the folks at ASW called me a reasonable one.

Note: There are reports that ASW opens at 8:00am, but e-mail or call to confirm beforehand - BMW's 2011 literature states 9:00am. The closing times reported here are from the BMW ED website.

Switzerland

Use of autobahns in Switzerland requires payment of an annual road tax through purchase of a vignette

This drop-off location is hard to find on the map. The easiest way to find it is to follow the signs at the Geneva airport that says "Fret". When you've reached the parking lot, Ritschard is in location 1 (shown in a large number at the top of the building). Go inside and look on the building directory to find their office as the building is shared with several businesses. Here is the Google maps link to the approximate location.

Zurich

Be sure to contact with them a few days before. They like to you provide purchase order, German registration and insurance prior to your arrival. If you are heading back to the airport afterward, you turn right after existing the building toward a small street between 2 buildings. It is less than 5 minutes walk to the station where you can catch either train or tram to airport. If you choose tram, it is No. 10 and use the platform across the street. No more than 10 minutes ride. (Per Mason)

Be sure to call and make an appointment at least 4 days prior to drop off. They will give you instructions on where to go, what to bring, and to wash your car beforehand. They said there are two car washes nearby, but those were not visible on the direct route into the airport from Paris. There is a self-service car wash on the left past the entrance to the TT Car Transit (just go around the corner, less than a minute away). They handle Europe by Car (Peugeot), several other makes of cars and also rental drop-off, so just park where they tell you and go into their trailer office. TT Car Transit has vans that will shuttle you to the airport terminal. If you're going back to Paris, ask for the shuttle to take you to the RER train station at the airport.

Nice

(The following is information from the web and googlemaps: Route de Grenoble is the N99 at this point, just off the A8/E80 Autoroute.)

bmrfam provides the following additional detail: "That is the correct location although that address is just the entrance. The parking location and office are about 300m down from there. Once you enter the front off Rue de Grenoble, you need to bear to the right and follow the lane all the way down in front of the long warehouse until you see some trees in front of you. You turn in to the right there and there is a very small building housing the TT Transit office. At least this is what it was 3 years ago and Google Earth appears to confirm. I will be there again in 3 weeks [in mid-June 2010] and can confirm again in person. This is the lat/long for the office itself:
43°40'11.85"N and 7°12'14.58"E."

The USA office for drop-offs has moved to a new building on Ruijgoordweg. To get there, head North on Ruijgoordweg from Westpoortweg. Past the Latexweg intersection, you will see signboards with business names on them. Look for the board with USA's name on it and turn into the parking lot for that building on the right. Park in the lot then walk around to the back of the building following signs for the Trucker's Reception. When you get to the reception, find an open window and get in line. There is no first come, first served system. This facility is used by cargo trucks to drop off shipping containers so the truck drivers will simply walk up and proceed with their business regardless if there are other people waiting around. If you need a taxi, ask the representative helping you to call one the moment you start the paperwork as it takes a while for taxis to get there. Make sure you get a copy of each document that you sign including the Condition Report. For people using the European Nav disk, please be aware that the Nav system will tell you that you have arrived at your destination when you reach the Kopraweg and Westpoortweg intersection. Keep driving to the next street which is Ruijgoordweg.

In October 2011, Peel added this useful information:
"First off, the iDrive navigation that had proved flawless for me on my travel through 8 countries located the drop-off by the address (Ruijgoordweg 80, Amsterdam). On the way there I encountered a closed road and was rerouted along a series of dike roads. When it said " you have reached your destination" I was in the middle of no-where. A bunch of modern wind-turbines and storage tanks were in the distance, but no building in site. Luckily for me I had looked up the address in Google Maps on my iPad that morning when I had wifi in the hotel, so the maps were all in my iPad's memory, and the iPad's GPS showed a blue dot where I was, so I was able to navigate that way the remaining 3km to the drop-off location.
Talking with them it turns out that the entire port facility is relatively new, and a road of the same name (Ruijgoordweg) used to exist where the iDrive had sent me. The Blue marker on the accompanying map (see thread ) is where the iDrive sent me, whereas the Red marker is where I really needed to be, so I would recommend taking along printed google maps, or other means of locating your destination."

If you wish to use public transportation to get to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, walk to the nearest bus stop on Westpoortweg (either bus stop 'Ruigoord Dorp' or 'Oceaangroep'). Take the bus 'Regioliner 82' towards Amsterdam and get off at bus stop 'Station Sloterdijk.' Purchase a train ticket and walk to platform 11 to catch the train to Schiphol Airport. To find the current schedule use: journeyplanner.9292.nl

Italy

For a fee, E.H. Harms will send a driver to return your car from a location in Italy to Munich for drop-off. The charges, as of August 2009, are:

Rome €725

Milan €520

Florence €520

Venice €490

Verona €490

Genoa €460

Bologna €490

Naples €735

Need a minimum of 3 valid days of vehicle registration and insurance. Also need to make a reservation a minimum of 5 days prior to drop-off. There is now a form that has to be filled out for Italian drop-off.

If you don't want to return all the way to Munich, and prefer that your car not be driven by others, or want to save the driver fee, many 'festers have chosen to drop-off in Nice, France.

Car Wash Information

If you have been doing a fair amount of driving, you may want to stop by a local car wash to get all the bugs and dirt off your car since it will be sitting on a ship for 6-8 weeks. If you have done ANY driving on dirt roads, you MUST clean the wheel wells and undercarriage, otherwise customs will not clear your vehicle!

It should be noted that because of some strict "laws" regarding working on Sunday in Germany, that you will likely not be able to wash your car that day, drive-thru OR self-serve. If you plan on dropping your car off on a Sunday, you may want to consider washing it another day if you want it clean for the ride home.

Munich

(Away from the airport)

Shell station at:

Münchner Ring 17
85716 Unterschleißheim.

The self-serve bays at the Shell station offer a choice of five programs, including a cold water wash, a hot wash with shampoo, as well as a wash with filtered water. The amount of Euros you put into the machine - either 50 cents, 1 Euro or 2 Euros - varies the amount of time given for your chosen program. Deposit the money and select the program. A display on the machine tells you how much time you have left.

(At or near Munich Airport)

It's north of the main road and there are plenty of signs to get you to it. It is also in the BMW Nav's European data base. It has multiple self-serve washbays available Monday through Friday from 0700 to 1900 and Saturday from 0800 to 1700. No car washing is available on Sundays.

Shell station with a carwash 10km away at:

Münchner Str. 11A
85375 Neufahrn
Telefon: 0816566442

Open 6am - midnight: Mon-Sat and 7am to midnight: Sunday. (Map here.)
To use the car wash machine, go inside the store and purchase your car wash package. The cashier will hand you a receipt which has a 6 digit code. Drive around the back and into the car wash station itself. All passengers must exit the car and once you have exited, you can then enter in your 6 digit code on the number pad at the car wash entrance. Once you've entered the code, the car wash garage door will close and your car wash will begin.

Frankfurt

There are three reported options:

1

Right before you turn into the Frankfurt Harms Drop-off, there is an Aral gas station and car wash (Okrifteler Strasse 18-20, 64546 Mörfelden-Walldorf). First, walk in the convenience store and pay for the program you desire (there is at least one attendant who speaks English and can translate the options for you). Prices range from €6,- to €12. Program #4 does a fine job for €7.95 (soap wash and wheel scrub). Once you get a ticket with a 6-digit code on it, drive behind the store to the car wash. (Be careful - the turning radius into the car wash bay is VERY tight, especially for 5 series cars or larger.) In winter, you'll need to press the circled blue button to open the car wash up. Park the car inside, walk back to the control panel, and punch in the code you received at the counter to start the wash. Does a really good job, including the front wheels.

When you get off the A5 you will probably be on 486 (Langener Strasse). When you take a right onto Industriestrasse there is an ARAL gas station with a car wash immediately on your right. The cashier inside of the store will sell you a Classic Wash for 6.50 Euros and give you a plastic key. Drive behind the station and around to the side and you will see the car wash. Drive inside, staying in the center of the rails on the floor. Creep forward until the red lights go on. Shut off the car and go to the control box at the right side of the entrance. Insert the plastic key in the slot, let it drop inside, and push the green button. The machine will soap, scrub, rinse, and dry your baby. It even does a fair job of cleaning the wheels.

2

Carwash "Superblank" is a self-serve wash at the nearby ESSO station. The exact address is:
Carwash SUPERBLANK
Aschaffenburger Straße 3a
64546 Mörfelden-Walldorf , and they have a website.

3

There is also a car wash at the at the Total gas station just a few feet past the ARAL gas station.

Paris/CDG

As you head towards CDG airport, follow signs for Terminal 3. Then, follow signs for TT Transit, which is where you will be dropping off your car. As you continue following the signs, just after one of the roundabouts you will see a banner of an Elephant. This is the car wash. It is brushless, and uses high pressure water and soap.

There is a self-wash after the last roundabout before you get to TT car transit. Just keep following the signs to TT car transit, and it will be on your right.

Nice airport

One car wash is located right at the airport just before you arrive at Terminal 2. There is a gas station there in the middle that serves the airport and they have a automatic wash and also two stalls for your own manual wash. The manual wash is 2 euro for every 3 minutes. Just go inside and ask for as many codes as you may need (say 5) and then head back out to wash it up. It is similar to a US version with a high pressure wand and a brush.

jsleemd has provided information on a second, drive-thru, American-style car wash that is called the "American Car Wash" and charges EUR 10. It is on the RN7 just W of the airport and has a website here. The exact street address is RN7, 520, route de la Gare, 06700 Saint Laurent du Var.

Vienna

There is a decent automatic brush (not touch-free) car wash about 2km west of (and on the way to) ASW at the Esso station at Handelskai 388a. After you get off the A23 from either direction and turn right onto the Handelskai, the Esso station will be on your right (on the ground floor underneath an office building) - you can't miss it if you're looking. If you just get the basic wash, there's an up-charge for cleaning the underside of your car, but it seems to be included in the higher-end washes. Go to the cashier first to pay and get your coded wash card.

Zurich

Kanuck (who seems to know every useful carwash in Western Europe) recommends Autop, with several locations.

Waiting, Tracking and Taking Re-Delivery

The toughest part about doing European Delivery has got to be the 6-8 week period (East Coast) or the 8-10 week period (West Coast) from when you drop off your car at one of the drop-off locations until it arrives at your dealer to pick up. Luckily, there are a great number of sites that you can use to keep track of where your car is and what progress it is making on its way to your dealer. In addition, a detailed article in the January 2010 issue of The Diesel Driver documents the shipping process and tells you what your car will expect on its voyage.

Shipping

East coast deliveries are handled by Wallenius Wilhelmsen and can be tracked by logging on here, choosing the Auto Cargo option and finally entering your VIN (make sure all letters are in CAPS) in the Cargo ID box. Click on the Voyage ID for the port arrival/departure schedule. Ports already departed are listed in red. You can also see upcoming departures at the WW Search by Ports page.

West coast deliveries are handled by N Y K line and can be tracked at the NYK website.

Edit 12/30/2011 - For west coast, your vehicle can be tracked by going to Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics - WWL and then entering you VIN number in the "Cargo ID" space and hit enter. It can take up to a week to show up after you drop off the car as it depends on when the paperwork is completed by the dropp-off location. The website will show you step by step tracking of when you car (cargo) was booked, received at terminal and loaded on vessel and the ETA at Port Hueneme.

Once you know your ship's name, you can attempt to track it using SailWX.com or MarineTraffic.com. You may not see reports until the ship is in open ocean. Not all ships participate in this voluntary reporting, but it does not hurt to try. You may also try to track it using VesselTracker.com. This site provides limited use for free and also appears to rely upon voluntary reporting.

Another option to track your ship after you have found the name or call sign is Digital Seas. This is a free open ship information archive that also includes realtime AIS position data. You need to register with the site, but it costs nothing and has a bunch of information. A more robust integrated Google map can also be plotted ( just enter the ship name where it says "Track Callsign" ) via the APRS site.

For a much more detailed list of links including port schedules and web cams, read this thread.

Customs

This section has disputed content. Some people report actually obtaining useful information from CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) while others report being unable to get any useful information, especially from Port Hueneme.

Once your car has arrived at the port, it must then move through the customs process. Ships can contain as many as 1,500 cars and it can take a great deal of time to offload and process that many vehicles; however, non-ED vehicles are typically electronically cleared while enroute. ED vehicles will be inspected, but this typically only takes ~3 days. However, there are reports of "customs intensive audits" extending this by several days or even weeks. See this thread for an example.

Pickup by BMW for Transport to VDC

After customs clearance EH Harms will be informed and will thus inform BMW to pickup your car from the customs lot, and BMW will transport your vehicle to the BMW Vehicle Distribution Center (VDC) for processing. The VDCs at each port receive the cars and prepare them for domestic delivery. A very comprehensive article documenting how your car will go through the VDC is in the February 2010 issue of The Diesel Driver. The story follows one car from the pier where it is offloaded, through the VDC, and onto the truck for delivery to the dealer. It is worth a read while you are waiting for re-delivery.

To ensure this process occurs in a reasonable timeframe, you can contact all parties directly at:

Trucking to Dealer

Following VDC acceptance, any repairs will be completed and your vehicle will be updated with the latest software campaigns. Once this is complete (1-2 days) your vehicle will be released to trucking for final transport to your dealer!

To find the status of your vehicle and its estimated delivery date at your dealership, you can contact the trucking company directly at: